Janak Sunil
| Janak Sunil | |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, software executive |
|---|---|
| Known for | Co-Founder and CEO of Bear |
| Education | University of California, Los Angeles (Bachelor's) |
Janak Sunil is an American entrepreneur and software executive who is the co-founder and CEO of Bear, a startup building marketing infrastructure for artificial intelligence agents. Bear participates in Y Combinator's Fall 2025 (F25) batch and is based in San Francisco, California.[1]
Career
Sunil graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a bachelor's degree.[2] While at UCLA, he was involved with BruinRent, a student-built platform that streamlined apartment searching by providing rental property listings alongside student-centric metrics such as amenities and noise levels.[3]
Prior to founding Bear, Sunil worked at Coinbase as a product leader.[4]
Sunil co-founded Bear to address an emerging problem in digital marketing: how companies appear in and get recommended by AI-powered search engines. As AI search tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity have gained adoption, traditional search engine optimization techniques have become insufficient for ensuring visibility in AI-generated responses. Bear offers companies tools for generative engine optimization (GEO), including visibility tracking across AI search platforms and optimization strategies designed to increase the likelihood that a company or product is surfaced by AI agents.[5]
Bear was accepted into Y Combinator's Fall 2025 batch and raised a seed round of funding.[6] The company was named among the top startups from the YC F25 cohort by Forbes and was included in Digital Journal's list of ten AI companies defining the next wave of innovation.[7]
In November 2025, Sunil contributed an article to the Forbes Business Council outlining a data-driven approach to optimizing content for AI search engines.[8]
References
- ↑ "Janak Sunil – Crunchbase". 'Crunchbase}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Janak Sunil – OpenSphere Nexus". 'OpenSphere}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Startup BruinRent streamlines apartment searching with student-centric metrics". 'Daily Bruin}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Bear". 'Bear}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Bear – Feature". 'Huge Magazine}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "The Top Startups To Watch From Y Combinator's Fall 2025 Batch". 'Forbes}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "10 AI companies defining the next wave of innovation". 'Digital Journal}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "How To Optimize Content For AI Search: A Data-Driven Approach". 'Forbes}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.